Ian BurtonDramatist

Born in Yorkshire and a graduate from the universities of Leeds and Bristol, Ian Burton has worked in a variety of different genres as a dramatist and writer: Opera librettos (Giorgio Battistelli’s Richard III and CO2, which premiered respectively at the Flanders Opera in 2005 and at Milan’s La Scala in 2015 in a production by Robert Carsen; The Duchess of Malfi for the English National Opera, performed in 2010 with the experimental Theatre Group Punchdrunk; Poppea, an adaptation of L’Incoronazione di Poppea at the Théâtre du Châtelet in 2012; Philippe Fénelon’s JJR in Geneva in 2012); scripts for ballets (Cinderella, Northern Ballet Theatre); stage dramas (Entering the Whirlpool, 1981, Deranging Angels, 1993, Mask, 1995, Between Two Worlds, a theatrical biography of Korngold first performed at the Covent Garden Festival in 1996, a play on the life of Chikamatsu, the “Japanese Shakespeare” in 1997, Men’s Doubles, 1998, a play about Poulenc entitled The Foot of the Cross, or the Muzzle of a Gun in 2001…); stage musicals (Eduard Alexander’s The Wedding of the Moon and Sun); and anthologies (Dorset Street, Rouflaquettes). For the last twenty years he has worked with Robert Carsen: Bernstein’s Candide at the Théâtre du Châtelet, Milan’s La Scala and the English National Opera; L’Incoronazione di Poppea and Rinaldo at Glyndebourne; Mitridate in Brussels, Iphigénie en Tauride and Orfeo ed Euridice in Chicago, Tannhäuser in Tokyo and at the Paris Opera; La Traviata in Venice, My Fair Lady at the Théâtre du Châtelet, Wozzeck at the Theater an der Wien, The Beggar’s Opera at the Bouffes du Nord and the Grand Théâtre in Geneva… Ian Burton is also a director. In 1994, Antwerp Province awarded him the best production prize for his triptych of one-act operas by Peter Maxwell Davies: Eight Songs For A Mad King, Versalii Icons, Miss Donnithorne’s Maggot. He has also worked for the chamber theatre Transparant (Mozart’s Zaide in 1995 and Weill’s Mahagonny Songspiel and Happy End in 1996) and staged the musical Frank’s Closet in London which earned the honour of “Critic’s Choice” in Time Out.